Green trends growing in popularity
The forecast for Earth Day 2005 is gloomy with a chance of doomsday.
By Joan Lowy
Scripps Howard News Service
April 12, 2005
Just last month, a sweeping study written by nearly 1,400 scientists concluded that mankind has changed the natural environment of the planet faster and more extensively over the past 50 years than at any other time in human history.
Natural resources that humanity depends upon – water, timber, food, fuel and fiber, to name a few – are overused and in jeopardy, the study found.
“A Short History of Progress” by Canadian historical philosopher Ronald Wright was published in Canada and is scheduled for U.S. release this month.
“Our civilization will survive if we can live on the surplus that nature generates in all its various ways,” Wright said in an interview. “But if we eat into the capital … then we’re on a path to bankruptcy and billions will die.”
There is, however, a green lining to these doom-and-gloom scenarios.
The market for Earth-friendly technologies and products is expanding at a rapid clip. Here are five of the most promising green trends this Earth Day, celebrated April 22.
Green cars
Conventional automobiles consume the majority of oil imported into the United States and emit one-third of the nation’s manmade greenhouse gases. Making cars more fuel efficient and shifting to alternative energy sources has been a national goal for more than two decades.
That goal may be in sight thanks to growing consumer acceptance of hybrid gas-electric cars like the Toyota Prius, Honda Civic and Ford Escape. The Prius, the best-selling hybrid, gets about 55 miles per gallon.
Since 1999, more than 200,000 hybrids have been sold in the United States, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists. Six hybrid models are currently on the market, with five to eight more set for release in the next three years.
Hybrids still represent less than 1 percent of vehicles on the road, but with gas prices topping $2 a gallon, consumer interest is growing rapidly, said Ron Cogan, publisher of Green Car Journal.
“It used to be a warm, green, fuzzy positioning thing for automakers to do environmental vehicles,” Cogan said. “Now it’s a competitive market issue. That’s the most important thing that’s happened in the last few years.”
Green buildings
In the last five years, the U.S. Green Building Council has certified 213 commercial and public buildings as meeting its standards for energy efficiency, use of recycled materials, water conservation and other practices.
That’s 217 million square feet, or 5 percent of the construction of commercial buildings over the past five years, according to the council. Another 1,800 buildings are in the process of being certified.
“When you think about how slow the building industry is to change, the fact that people are even following (the council’s standards) is kind of amazing to us,” said Taryn Holowka, a spokeswoman for the council. “It’s a whole new way of building.”
San Francisco, Boston and Scottsdale, Ariz., have passed laws requiring that new public buildings be green buildings.
“I think what has happened is we’ve changed people’s attitudes,” Holowka said. “They realize that a green building doesn’t have to look like space ship, it doesn’t have to cost more, and in the long run it actually saves money.”
Also, the Environmental Protection Agency reports that nearly 10 percent of new-home construction in some of the nation’s top housing markets meets the agency’s Energy Star requirements. To earn an Energy Star, a new house must be 30 percent more energy efficient than required by regulation.
Green roofs
These plant-covered roofs reduce storm-water runoff, air pollution, energy bills and the urban “heat island” effect. The technology has been most successful in Germany, where more than 1 billion square feet of green roofs have been installed since the late 1980s. The technology, slow to take root in the United States, is now blossoming.
“It’s definitely taking off,” said David Beattie, a horticulture professor at Pennsylvania State University. “It’s the up-and-coming environmental technology.”
One yardstick: Emory Knoll Farms in Street, Md., a leading supplier of plants for green roofs, sold 10,000 plants last year, but expects to sell over 1 million plants this year, Beattie said.
Most of the plants used on green roofs are varieties of succulents, which tend to be heat-resistant and to soak up lots of water.
New York, Chicago, Toronto and Portland, Ore., are in the process of developing programs to encourage installation of green roofs, said Steve Peck, executive director of Green Roofs for Healthy Cities, which promotes green roofs in North America.
Roof spaces account for 15 percent to 35 percent of the total area of a city, Peck said. “What you have is a bunch of roofs that are like hot plates heating up cities in the summertime,” Peck said. “With a green roof you actually turn that hot plate into an air conditioner.”
Green energy
The amount of electricity generated by wind energy in the United States has been growing at a rate of about 25 percent a year over the past five years, according to the American Wind Energy Association.
Wind still accounts for less than 1 percent of the nation’s total electricity, but rising natural-gas prices and concern about greenhouse-gas emissions from coal-fired power plants are making it increasingly attractive to utilities.
Currently, 6,740 megawatts of electricity are generated annually by wind power in the United States, but another 2,000 megawatts are expected to come online in the next three years, said Christine Real de Azua, a spokeswoman for the association.
Among the major projects in the works are a 300-megawatt wind farm in the ocean off Cape Cod, Mass., and a 178-megawatt wind farm off Long Island, N.Y.
Another spur to wind-farm construction has been the “renewable portfolio standards” that have been adopted in 17 states. The standards, which vary from state to state, require electric utilities to produce a portion of their energy from renewable energy sources like wind, solar and geothermal. Some states are requiring more than 10 percent of electricity be produced from renewable sources within the next 15 years.
“This is not an energy technology that needs to be further developed and is only available in the future,” Real de Azua said. “If people are looking for a bridge to a clean energy future, wind is here.”
Green chemistry
Chemical manufacturing is the source of the many products that modern lifestyles depend upon, including medicines, plastics, fuels and fabrics. But there is growing evidence that chemical manufacturing is harming the environment and human health.
The goal of green chemistry is to minimize or eliminate this potential harm. By factoring the elimination of hazardous byproducts into the design of products and processes, an increasing body of research suggests chemists can design chemicals to be safe, just as they design them to have other properties such as color or texture.
“Without chemistry, most of what we take for granted in modern life would be impossible,” Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, R-N.Y., said at a House hearing on legislation to increase federal research and development of green chemistry. “It’s also true that chemicals can pose a threat to life and we’re discovering more threats all the time.
“But many of those threats could be lessened or avoided entirely if we focused more of our research on green chemistry.”
On the Net:
Green Roofs
http://hortweb.cas.psu.edu/research/greenroofcenter
Green Cars
Green Buildings
Green Energy
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)
Posted by: Paul on April 13, 2005 at 22:02:08